[SOLVED] WIN10 update messed up my sound...

[Robert Shearman Jr]

Hi all --

 

PREFACE: I know a little about tech troubleshooting but not a lot. I have done some looking around on other tech support forums but haven't found anything yet. A pointer in the right direction will help but I'm stumped for now.

 

I run FSX and vPilot on Windows 10 Home 64-bit. A recent Windows Update installed itself a couple days ago, and now I am unable to access the Realtek High Definition Audio Manager, by which I used to split my speakers and headset into separate audio streams. With them listed as separate playback devices, I would do what I think most of us do, which is to route the FSX audio to the speakers and the vPilot audio to the headset.

 

However, since the update, I am back to having the speakers and headset work in conjunctoin; i.e. they are listed as one playback device only, and plugging in the headset automatically disables the speakers.

 

I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling the Realtek HD Audio Manager and drivers, to no avail. The software still shows up under the Task Manager "Startup" tab as "enabled" but does not appear in the system tray. I can go to the folder where the GUI .exe file is contained, but when I run it, nothing happens. I can see that right-clicking the regular audio icon does elicit a few more options than it used to, but as far as I can tell, splitting the audio streams doesn't seem to be one of them.

 

My feeling is that the reason there's not a lot of literature on this issue is that as of yet only a small percentage of WIN10 users have been hit with the update, and most of those are probably not flight simmers and/or have no reason to want to split the audio streams. So I'm posting this (a) as a caution to anyone here who uses that same technique to split the audio and runs WIN10 but hasn't had the update yet, and (b) to solicit some help in how to get back to being able to split the audio.

 

And, no, before you ask, running vPilot on another, networked machine is not a preferable option. For now, I am doing things the old-fashioned way, with a carefully-balanced mix of vPilot and FSX sound all coming to the headset.

 

Thanks in advance for any help you can point me toward.

Edited December 12, 2017 at 01:07 AM by Guest

[Randy Tyndall 1087023]

Robert,

 

I don't know if this could be related...for a lot of different reasons, mostly because I use Win7 Pro 64-bit and disabled updates a long time ago when one of Microsofts KB's killed the systems ability to read disks to start a game, like FS2004 or Silent Hunter or any number of other software.

 

However, on this system was an integrated Realtek Audio System, probably very similar to yours. I installed a better graphics card which could also be a sound card and my system [Mod - Happy Thoughts]umed during install that I wanted to use the sound option off the graphics card. I did not. It disabled my integrated system inside the BIOS options and I had to go into BIOS and enable the integrated sound card, which disabled the sound portion off the graphics card.

 

Honestly, this was in early 2015, so I have no idea how I did it, I just know when I looked for "Graphics Card Kills Integrated Sound Card" I found the step by step instructions on how to do it.

 

I think it was this site... http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/393801-33-graphics-card-sound-radeon-5450-dc5800

 

Caution, fiddling with BIOS can be dangerous I've been told...mostly because I'm computer illiterate, but if I can read how to do it I will try anything. After all, it's just a computer, right?

 

Randy

[Georgi Bonchin 1394205]

Hi Rob,

It seems that unfortunately the last update of Windows 10 made lots of damages to the SIM software at all. I was unable to run my SIM (FSX:SE) at all after it was implemented. There was always a message concerning the graphic card performance stating that child window cannot be opened or something from the sort.

My solution was to refresh (reinstall) the graphic driver and the messages stopped. You may try the same with the Realtec drivers and hopefully it helps.

There are many reports in the forums that this particular Windows update was not very friendly to the SIM and many users are recommending most radical measures simply to remove it. Being not a computer expert I am unable to comment, but hopefully you can get your solution even without going to BIOS.

[Robert Shearman Jr]

My solution was to refresh (reinstall) the graphic driver and the messages stopped. You may try the same with the Realtec drivers and hopefully it helps.

It doesn't. I tried that already (stated in original post). If in your travels around the net you hear of any further relevant updates and possible solutions as more and more are affected by this "virus," please p[Mod - Happy Thoughts] them along. I'll keep looking for them myself as well. Thanks for the commiseration, at least! :-/

[Robert Shearman Jr]

My solution was to refresh (reinstall) the graphic driver and the messages stopped. You may try the same with the Realtec drivers and hopefully it helps.

It doesn't. I tried that already (stated in original post).

Correction -- it did, when I installed the correct drivers. An important lesson for the less-than-tech-savvy, like myself -- all Realtek HD Audio Drivers are not created equal. Finding the one made especially for the motherboard I had did the trick. The catch was that my box is not supported for Windows 10, but, the Windows 8 version seems to work fine without side effects (so far, at least), and I'm back to being able to split all jacks into separate devices. Yay!

[Georgi Bonchin 1394205]

Good to hear that you managed it!